Tube Cutting Machine Advice

[skiffe]

I run a small business where I spend a lot of time cutting 1/2"-7/8" aluminum, steel, and carbon fiber tubing (1/16" wall). For 5 years I've been using the Harbor Freight Central Machinery Metal Cutting Horizontal Bandsaw purchased for a few hundred dollars. It is a workhorse for my easily cut materials but cuts require straightening with a sander which is as time consuming as the cutting. I am wondering what direction to go for a better saw as I am not experienced in metal work outside of producing my products. Better bandsaw? Cold Saw? Something else?

Goals:
I'd like cuts to be incredibly straight.
I'd love to spin less time sanding down edges but burs are burs and cuts must look nice

Obstacles:
Volume - this is a home business and I'm hoping to avoid loud equipment. The bandsaw was nice in this respect.
Debris - bandsaw is not too bad in this aspect either - would like to avoid worse.
Cost - I realize that the Harbor Freight budget must be increased and will do what I have to for the best solution. $1k? $2k?

Thank you in advance for any advice. I don't post here often but when I do the valuable input I get shapes decisions that have helped my business succeed.

 

[jscpm]

Ideas:

- tubing shear

- toothless blade

- tubing cutter

- mitre saw with a carbide blade

 

[Ries]

this is like in hot rodding-
How fast can I go?
How much money you got?

personally, if I was you, I would be looking for a used cold saw- its gonna be your best tradeoff between accuracy and price- but its gonna cost a LOT more than your funky HF saw.
A new one can easily run six grand.
A decent used one, is a deal, at two grand.

Next up, you can buy a Georg Fischer german tube cutting machine- they will give you dead nuts flat and square burr free cuts- but they cost serious dough.
I used one, somebody else's, on a job once, and it was amazing.
Orbital Cutting & Welding Products | High Purity Tube Cutting & Facing | E.H. Wachs®

 

[3t3d]

I started out in my garage with that exact little saw.
IF you take the time to adjust each blade guide, and vise/guide very carefully, and have a new or non-tortured blade, it will cut very straight.

The (cheap) blades wear out and start to develop a curve in them.. Throw that out. It will not grow back new.
Brace up the flimsy skirt that is sits on.
Check for sloppiness in the pivot where the saw goes up and down...
It is a flimsy little thing, but is no different than a better (expensive) solution.

Look it over, fix a few things, and it will do what you need. You are cutting some light material.

Or just spend the cash on a more robust machine.

 

[jamscal]

Small KAMA bandsaw sounds right up your alley. Grab a small 1x42 belt sander to deburr and you'll be ahead of the game.

 

[Limy Sami]

IME the carbon fibre tube will be the killer, that stuff knocks the crap out of steel cutting tools.

Budget fix for straighter cuts ;- I'd tune upthe saw as reccomended and keep seperate blades for each material.

 

[Sea Farmer]

Small KAMA bandsaw sounds right up your alley. Grab a small 1x42 belt sander to deburr and you'll be ahead of the game.

I have the KAMA and its quite nice, but so expensive that in hindsight I could have gotten a used cold saw for the same price (was around $1400). I've seen a few other small bandsaws in intermediate price ranges between KAMA and the HF junk, say around $400 to $800, that might be the ticket.

But I bet they'd also need some tuning up--even my KAMA needs it every once in a while.

Limy may have the best solution for the OPs situation, especially as far as keeping separate blades for each material. They're small blades, they wear fast if tooth size and configuration isn't just right for each material.

 

[skiffe]

I started out in my garage with that exact little saw.
IF you take the time to adjust each blade guide, and vise/guide very carefully, and have a new or non-tortured blade, it will cut very straight.

The (cheap) blades wear out and start to develop a curve in them.. Throw that out. It will not grow back new.
Brace up the flimsy skirt that is sits on.
Check for sloppiness in the pivot where the saw goes up and down...
It is a flimsy little thing, but is no different than a better (expensive) solution.

Look it over, fix a few things, and it will do what you need. You are cutting some light material.

Or just spend the cash on a more robust machine.

The problem may be that I have no experience in a shop but jumped right in to full time design and manufacturing. It has been successful but I have not been able to make the proper adjustments to get a straight cut anymore (it once cut straight-ish). I use quality blades and it is mounted on my own stand - but there is only so much adjustment that I have found available at the blade guide and I cannot figure out how to adjust sloppiness at the pivot. It really runs fine and cuts great - it is just the sloppy cut angle that gets me and will justify whatever cost is needed.

 

[powerglider]

do you have the room in your shop for more than 1 saw? If you add a simple chop saw, with the appropriate blade (non ferrous blade) you will easily get straight and fast cuts on all your aluminum tubing cuts. I had a friend working in the shop with me that modified my Bosch Chop saw so that I could lubricate the blade from a simple set up (I'll take a video of that for you and post it). I'm cutting 1 1/2 inch square 8020 tubing on my current project and cuts easy and straight. Mostly I cut 1" aluminum tubing or smaller, all .058 - .062 wall thickness. Burrs are light (hardly any when the blade is new or just been sharpened). For other materials I'm no expert so can't help there.

 

[michiganbuck]

do you have the room in your shop for more than 1 saw? If you add a simple chop saw, with the appropriate blade (non ferrous blade) you will easily get straight and fast cuts on all your aluminum tubing cuts. I had a friend working in the shop with me that modified my Bosch Chop saw so that I could lubricate the blade from a simple set up (I'll take a video of that for you and post it). I'm cutting 1 1/2 inch square 8020 tubing on my current project and cuts easy and straight. Mostly I cut 1" aluminum tubing or smaller, all .058 - .062 wall thickness. Burrs are light (hardly any when the blade is new or just been sharpened). For other materials I'm no expert so can't help there.

Agree with a chop saw and using an abrasive wheel for steel and fiber tube, if the noise would not be a problem. Speed , squareness, very light burr, with using a stop precision length.

 

[powerglider]

wanted to add that a chop saw is noisy though. My Bosch runs at 3500 rpm? so pretty good amount of noise. I use Pelter noise protection headsets when I cut on it.

 

[MarkL]

Tube cutting

Skiffe: I cut a variety of different thin walled tubes at my job...especially carbon fiber, glass fiber, aluminum and titanium. What works the best is a diamond blade cutting wet and the tubes held in a tube vise I built. Perfectly square and burr free and no tearing of fibers at the ends. Works very nice with aluminum also. I used an old DoAll surface grinder and mounted a 7" dia. diamond wheel and can cut almost anything. Blades last a long, long time...have been using the same wheel over 10 years!! No waste to speak of and no dust with little noise. You could fashion something similar with a high speed motor and arbor and build your own rather inexpensively. Regards, Mark in Buffalo

I run a small business where I spend a lot of time cutting 1/2"-7/8" aluminum, steel, and carbon fiber tubing (1/16" wall). For 5 years I've been using the Harbor Freight Central Machinery Metal Cutting Horizontal Bandsaw purchased for a few hundred dollars. It is a workhorse for my easily cut materials but cuts require straightening with a sander which is as time consuming as the cutting. I am wondering what direction to go for a better saw as I am not experienced in metal work outside of producing my products. Better bandsaw? Cold Saw? Something else?

Goals:
I'd like cuts to be incredibly straight.
I'd love to spin less time sanding down edges but burs are burs and cuts must look nice

Obstacles:
Volume - this is a home business and I'm hoping to avoid loud equipment. The bandsaw was nice in this respect.
Debris - bandsaw is not too bad in this aspect either - would like to avoid worse.
Cost - I realize that the Harbor Freight budget must be increased and will do what I have to for the best solution. $1k? $2k?

Thank you in advance for any advice. I don't post here often but when I do the valuable input I get shapes decisions that have helped my business succeed.

 

[Fabworks]

Check this saw out. I have one that I use to cut steel and aluminum. Have not cut CF.

http://www.feinus.com/en_us/sawing-and-cutting/metal-cutting-saws/14-in-slugger-metal-cutting-saw-0302133/

 

[3t3d]

The problem may be that I have no experience in a shop but jumped right in to full time design and manufacturing. It has been successful but I have not been able to make the proper adjustments to get a straight cut anymore (it once cut straight-ish). I use quality blades and it is mounted on my own stand - but there is only so much adjustment that I have found available at the blade guide and I cannot figure out how to adjust sloppiness at the pivot. It really runs fine and cuts great - it is just the sloppy cut angle that gets me and will justify whatever cost is needed.

Here is the manual for another copy of the same saw...
http://cdn0.grizzly.com/manuals/g0622_m.pdf

You might have stopped reading before page 33 or so...
Read and think about every detail they give you.

You will be amazed how much better everything goes after a lot of tiny pointless adjustments.

 

[RoboChair]

I'm just going to leave this here...
DEWALT DW872 14-Inch Multi-Cutter Saw - Power Metal Cutting Saws - Amazon.com
I haven't bought one myself, but know many that are happy with the results, you may need a different blade for carbon fiber.

 

[powerglider]

here is a short video of the set up I use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMXW5xz8t80

 

[alonzo83]

I can't vouch for the carbon fiber but I really want to find a scotchman ?sp. for the shop for cutting tubing.

They are a very quiet machine.

 

[FredC]

If your cut tubes are short enough, a horizontal mill will do a super job. I have posted a youtube video of an employee cutting hypodermic tubing on our Hardinge mill. We have cut larger less demanding tubing on an old cheap US Mill and done a very good job. With an old horizontal you can run cutting oil or coolant and slit through the vice so both sides of the cut are supported. Done this way you get a very square and almost burr free cut.
Found the link:
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...-steel-tubing-292902-post2399678/#post2399678

 

[jims]

First thing I would do is go to a local saw shop and
see what they would charge and turn over time. I had all my sawing done outside and the pros did it so fast and so good that I only did very small runs in shop. They had some some automatic saws that would hold super close sizes better faster and cheaper than I could.
jimsehr

 

[PeteM]

The Fein/Jancy "Slugger" and the DeWalt "Multicutter" were mentioned above, both around $500. The main trick is finding a good blade for the material at hand.

Either could do the job quickly and cleanly, but not quietly or especially cheaply for the blades. If you do enough tubing to justify it, you could make a sound enclosure. There are a number of other chop-saw type saws that run about half speed (e.g. Makita, Milwaukee etc.) or 1300 or so rpm. I once had the DeWalt -- it was OK. I currently have a Milwaukee -- which I like a bit better.

A true cold saw will do the job with longer blade life, possibly greater accuracy (the miter-saw types tend to have mediocre vises), and quieter. But as Ries noted, at maybe 4x the price for a good used one.

Another option (quiet) is a portable band saw. These can be fixtured to have equal or better accuracy to the typical 4x6" bandsaw; and the thinner variable pitch bi-metal blades can cut faster and are cheaper to replace. I had a Milwaukee deep cut portable on a Milwaukee stand modified with a vise of my own devising.

I currently have a DeWalt that sets into a cast iron router table with an accurate and self-feeding fence. These cut cleaner and more accurately than either my small horizontal (an import, like yours) or vertical metal-cutting bandsaws. If there's interest I can take a pix of the DeWalt setup -- however it's not for cutting long lengths down to size (the old Milwaukee setup was better for that).